Germany has shut down one of the country’s largest and oldest mosques and ordered a ban on the nationwide Shia Muslim organisation that runs it for religious extremism.
Dozens of police raided Hamburg’s Blue Mosque on Wednesday morning, as well as 53 other properties across Germany, in one of the most significant crackdowns on political Islamism in the country in years.
The interior ministry said it was formally banning the Islamic Centre of Hamburg and its affiliated organisations for preaching “totalitarian rule, aggressive antisemitism and support for the terror group Hizbollah”.
Three other mosques, in Berlin, Frankfurt and Munich, have also been raided and closed.
Iran’s foreign ministry summoned the German ambassador to Tehran to “condemn the hostile action” and warned about “the consequences of such destructive actions,” which they said “exemplify a clear case of Islamophobia,” according to the official news agency, IRNA.
Iran conveyed to Germany that the measure could “incite religious and sectarian tensions”, the ministry added.
The ICH, which did not respond to a request for comment, has previously denied accusations of extremism.
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